Visa issues sorted for 25 athletes bound for Asian C’ships: AFI

The visa issues faced by 25 athletes bound for the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea beginning May 27 has been sorted and the contingent will reach the host country on time, a top official of the national federation said on Thursday.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had named a 59-member team for the May 27-31 continental championships in Gumi, with most of the top stars, except for double Olympics medallist Neeraj Chopra, making the cut.

Chopra missing the event was on expected lines as his focus this season will be the Diamond League and the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

Chopra up against Weber again

Chorzow (Poland): The 90m frontier finally breached last week, Neeraj Chopra will be eying an even bigger throw in yet another top-class men’s javelin field at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet here on Friday. Chopra sent his spear to 90.23m at the Doha Diamond League though he had to settle for a second-place finish after German Julian Weber produced a 91.06m effort. Weber will be there in Poland too.

It’s learnt that the visas of 25 athletes were delayed due to various reasons. Out of the 59 athletes, those based at the Thiruvananthapuram training centre will leave for Gumi Thursday night from the Kerala capital itself. Those whose training bases are in Bengaluru, Patiala and Mumbai will leave from Delhi, also Thursday night.

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